


Unam Quaestio Amoris

by Spoon_Killer97



Series: Malec Week 2018 [2]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Gladiators, Alternate Universe - Human, Eventual Smut, Explicit Language, F/M, Falling In Love, Gladiator! AU, Gladiator!Alec Lightwood, Gladiator!Magnus Bane, Holy Roman Empire, M/M, Malec Week 2018, Past Violence, Smut, Training
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 04:21:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15235212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spoon_Killer97/pseuds/Spoon_Killer97
Summary: Day 2:Ancient Rome.After saving himself form his own execution, Magnus arrives at the best ludus in the whole republic to train and become a gladiator. The thing is, he already is a gladiator and he doesn't trust anyone inside those places anymore thanks to his former owners... Except, there is a certain very popular champion that is going to make him change his mind.Alexander, the campion of the house is going to be attached to this new recruit from day one.





	Unam Quaestio Amoris

**Author's Note:**

> The tittle means "A matter of love" in latin. My knowledge of how gladiators work, is based on Spartacus only and a tinny bit of google investigation, so, if something is not accurate, sorry.
> 
> As I said on the fist story, this Malec Week, apart from the challenge of writing about each day’s plot, I’m going to explore different types of love, or better, ways to fall in love, so for this day is going to be: The normal, from stranger to lovers type.
> 
> Also I took a lot of references and lines from that TV show because I love it; and also there is a lot of bad language and sex in Spartacus, so I kept the tradition and they are going to talk very dirtily and the smut will be explicit. Also some of the characters are OCs or based on Spartacus, so if I don’t state their name is because they are not part of the Shadowhunters’ universe and are not relevant.
> 
> And finally I tried to make some of the names or last names more “roman”, I think I failed miserably but at least I tried, I used a couple of characters from The Infernal Devices, so if you don’t know who is anyone because of the changing in names, ask me, tho I think they are all pretty obvious.
> 
> I think I’ll add a list of terms that I used too, if you have questions, again feel free to ask. 
> 
> **Ludus:** Place where they hold and train gladiators.
> 
> **Duminus:** how they call the male master.
> 
> **Subligaria** Basically, a sort of loincloth.
> 
> **Lanista:** trainer or, rather, owner of gladiators. 
> 
> **Calceus:** Is a common roman shoe.
> 
> **Doctore:** he’s kind of the leader of gladiators, a gladiator too but with more authority and he actually trains them and communicates with the dominus on how they are doing.

Luke’s whip sounded loud and clear cutting the air around everyone. The sand that surrounded the _ludus’_ yard was thick and dusty. The gladiators where standing behind him as he looked at the new recruits.

Four men were standing firm, looking at the black man with the leather chest plate in which he hit the whip he was holding. The men were completely bare except for the _subligaria_ each of them had and the _calceus_ that covered their feet. Their skin was tanned, on some of them more than the others; some of them had fresh cuts in their skin, an indicator of the way they arrived to this place.

The gladiators had the same _subligaria_ and some of them had a leather strap across their chest. Their expressions were smug, they loved to see the fresh meat and how Lucian initiated them.

“What is beneath your feet?” Luke asked the new men. All of them remain silent, Luke whipped his chest again making some of them jump, his expression was determined and very serious, a couple of the new ones couldn’t even bare to look at him. “Answer! What is beneath your feet?”

“Sand,” one of them answered in a playful tone making other two laugh. Lucian’s gaze was enough to silence them, he moved his whip till it tangled the man’s ankle and then he pulled. The man fell to the ground with a loud thud. He was the shortest one with thin muscles and a half tanned skin; he had a word in dark ink on his forehead and no hair.

“Alexander!” Luke called startling the new ones again. Thanks to his gladiator reflexes, Alec was able to come out of his stupor; he was looking at one of the new ones. His skin was the more tanned of them all, his muscles hard and extending over his whole body; his hair was slightly long at the tips and was black. But what caught Alec’s attention were his deep, brown, penetrating, slanted eyes; he couldn’t stop looking at them.

“Doctore,” Alec answered looking at the black man with the whip in his hand.

“What is beneath your feet?” Luke asked, looking at the new man on the floor.

“Sacred ground, doctore,” Alec answered firmly, feeling the gaze of the exotic man on him. “Watered with the tears of blood.”

“Your tears, your blood,” Luke answered looking at the four men, as the hairless one stood up. “Your lives now forged into something of worth. Listen and learn so perhaps live as gladiators… Now attend your master.”

All the new recruits looked at the balcony doors that opened after that phrase.

A tall red-haired man came out of those doors with a very short woman at his side. They both looked powerful but were just barely older than the gladiators and the men standing in front of them. The man was dressed in a simple blue tunic that covered his whole body; his very red hair was messy and curly; his hazel eyes exuded command but also a gentleness that was rare to see on any _lanista_ ; he had a beard that was barely there and sharp features; really handsome for, again, a conventional _lanista_.

The woman at his side got barely to his chest, but was obviously his age; her hair and eyes were brown and beautiful. She had gentle features but a ferocity in her gaze that could left any man breathless in a second. She was wearing a simple green dress that suited her perfectly and her hair was complicatedly braided. She didn’t held a piece of shyness, nor vulnerability when she looked at them.

The gladiators of the _ludus_ where beneath the balcony’s floor, so they couldn’t look at their masters, but the four new recruits were standing perfectly bellow and in front of them.

“You have been presented a new opportunity of life,” the red-haired said to the new men. “Whether it is for having a way to redeem yourselves of your crimes, or because you are at better hands right now,” with that he looked the exotic man. “You find yourselves at the ludus of Henry Jocelunius Branwellian, the provider of the best gladiators in the republic.” The gladiators roared in victory at their _dominus’_ words. “Prove yourselves more than a common slave, more than a man, and stand among my titans.” The gladiators roared again.

Luke whipped his chest silencing all.

“A gladiator does not fear death,” he said next with that stoic expression. “He embraces it, caresses it, fucks it.”

The hairless recruit with the word on his forehead started laughing. Lucian looked at him and the man swallowed.

“Each time he enters the arena,” he continued as he walked closer to the recruit, slowly. “He puts his member into the mouth of the beast and prays to be home before the jaw snaps shut.” With the last word he used his hand to hit the man right in the groin.

The recruit groaned in pain doubling over; the movement made the others smile.

“Right now, none of you will last a moment.” Luke kept walking until he stood in front of the exotic man. “Except one.” He looked straight into the man’s eyes.

“This troubled foreigner stood against three in the arena,” explained Luke. “Condemned to die, given nothing but a sword to weight his life upon. Study this man and realize... He is missing something.”

The gladiators huffed while the exotic man glared at Lucian.

“He was a deserter, betrayed his former master to run away. A former gladiator in disgrace. His victory meant nothing, for it brought him right back to a ludus to learn the true meaning of loyalty.”

Alec saw how the man closed his fists and he knew there was something wrong with that story; he didn’t knew how, but his gut told him that there was a reason for the anger he was seeing right now in the man’s eyes.

Luke walked back to the center of the yard and kept talking.

“He fought against the ill trained man of Valentino, your masters’ rival.”

“Had Magnus entered the arena with any gladiator here,” Henry said. “I would have lost a man with a lot of potential as his head left his body.” Henry’s voice didn’t held any heat or mockery, just a deep trust in his men that was more than evident.

The exotic man, Magnus, held back a smile; Alec could see the look in his eyes, he thought it was true, but at the same time he was trying to keep his stoicism.

“You disagree?” Luke asked as Magnus looked at Henry who smiled at him. Magnus didn’t answered. “A demonstration, perhaps.” Magnus remain silent.

“Alec!” Luke called and Alec took a step forward. “Simon, get practice swords.”

Simon, the servant of the gladiators, took two wooden _gladiums_ from a box and ran towards Alec. He had white skin with some black body hair, his eyes where brown and his hair was dark and messy; he had a formed body but not as muscular as the gladiators and he moved with a shyness that gave him a gentle air.

Simon handed the other sword to Luke, who handed it to Magnus. The tanned man took the sword and looked at his opponent, he felt a pull towards those eyes that he couldn’t explain.

“Get here and fight,” Luke said but Magnus didn’t move, looking at him defiantly. “Magnus!” Luke’s voice was commanding and impatient but the exotic man didn’t move. That made the black man growl and he moved his whip over his head before directing it towards Magnus.

He raised his hand and the whip tangled in his wrist; he looked more defiantly and Lucian who growled again and pulled the whip towards him.

The strength of the movement made Magnus move forward and fell to the ground; Alec couldn’t help but jump, he knew that Luke was always more strict and hard with fresh meat, but he always felt bad for the poor rebel ones, for those were the more whipped at the end of the day.

Magnus stood slowly after Luke untangled his whip with a movement of his hand. His gaze was less defiantly.

“Now, fight,” doctore said in a calmer voice.

Magnus looked at Alec and ran towards him; his sword fell directly over Alec’s who stopped him and then kicked his foot making Magnus fell to the ground.

The exotic man glared at the gladiator but realized the other was looking at him with an open tenderness he didn’t expect. Alec looked like a beast of the arena, but his eyes were open and honest. He was just defending himself and fulfilling orders.

Alec nodded slightly before going for the attack with the sword. Magnus smiled and stood up stopping his opponent quickly. They started hitting sword against sword but soon Alec made a move that had Magnus on the ground again.

The other gladiators laughed and made cheering noises.

“An attack must be grounded and proper footing,” Luke explained to everyone. “You can’t attempt to press before you regained balance.”

Magnus stood again as Alec walked like a lion looking at his prey, the rest continue cheering. He attacked the gladiator again with force.

They continue like that for another minute, sword against sword, before Alec took advantage of Magnus’ wrong training and positioning and made him fall to the ground again. The tall gladiator did things methodically, as if he was repeating the lessons inside his head and then putting them into practice.

“Come entangled with a more powerful opponent,” Luke said. “And you are dead.”

With one swift moment he took Magnus’ sword away and then he was on him, straddling his waist, a knee on the ground while his other foot pressed against Magnus' wrist to prevent him from moving. Then he was with the border of his wooden sword over the recruit’s throat. Luke approached them.

“Loose your sword and you are dead again.” Luke looked at Magnus. “Two fingers,” he continue showing said fingers. “A sign of surrender. A plea of mercy to the editor of the games.”

Alec pressed his sword a little harder looking right into Magnus’ eyes. The tanned man looked back at him, his eyes were like deep pools in which one could drown, Magnus couldn’t look away, Alec was so full of feelings and life and he felt a shiver running through his spine at being at the mercy of such a strong soul.

But despite that, the didn’t surrender; he closed the fist Alec was holding with his foot, even harder as he stared into those beautiful eyes. The gladiator smile at him.

“Alec,” Henry said from the balcony. “Let him go.”

“Dominus,” Alec acknowledged with a nod standing before he helped Magnus up.

“Continue training,” was the last thing their master said before entering the house again.

“In this ludus we don’t surrender,” Luke said looking at Magnus before he smiled a little. “Welcome, former gladiator.”

Magnus nodded and when he looked back at Alec, he saw the white-skinned man smiling at him. That smiled made his heart jump and he had to quarrel himself because he couldn’t trust anyone inside this place, not his new master, nor the gladiators that lived here. Gods, he couldn’t even trust the servants. He cleared his throat and thank his doctore before going back to his position.

**Author's Note:**

> Twitter: [SpoonKiller03](https://twitter.com/SpoonKiller03)  
> Tumblr: [A BLOG...](http://spoonkiller03.tumblr.com)


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